


A Miracle Is Not Something To Ignore

by saibug1022



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders is a Good Friend, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders is a Sweetheart, Caring Logic | Logan Sanders, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders Angst, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders Needs a Hug, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders is a Good Friend, Insecure Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders, Logic | Logan Sanders Is A Good Friend, Logic | Logan Sanders is a Sweetheart, M/M, Morality | Patton Sanders is a Good Friend, Morality | Patton Sanders is a Sweetheart, Multi, Mutual Pining, Pining Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders, Polyamory, Romantic Soulmates, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-07
Updated: 2020-04-15
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:00:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 11,741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23546530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saibug1022/pseuds/saibug1022
Summary: The first thing your soulmates think about you will appear on your wrist, everyone learns this in second grade. But Roman's first thought isn't in words, it's in colors. This wouldn't be a problem, he could deal with that. That is, if he didn't have a habit of falling in love with his best friends.
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil/Creativity | Roman/Logic | Logan/Morality | Patton
Comments: 65
Kudos: 341





	1. Soulmates

It was in second grade they were finally taught about it: soulmates. 

Of course, everyone had heard about soulmates. That would be like them not knowing what a house or a tree was. But other than what little they had been able to nag adults into telling them, they didn't know much. They especially didn't know the logistics of it, or how it worked.

What Roman did know about soulmates made him absolutely thrilled to finally learn more about it. He knew that your soulmate was someone who loved you not despite your flaws, but loved you AND your flaws. Someone who would love you unconditionally and who was handpicked by destiny itself to be your true love. At least that's what his Ma said. His Mom was a little more cynical about it. She said that a lot of soulmates were like that, but there were somethings that destiny couldn't predict or control and that soulmate relationship just wasn't right. She said that that was okay and if it happened then there was nothing wrong with those people. Roman knew that, but he still hoped his soulmate would be...well, his soulmate.

The entire second grade sat on the gymnasium floor and one of the teachers, Roman didn't know their name, stood up on the old wooden stage and talked them through soulmates. At first they mainly just said what Ma and Mom had told him and Roman couldn't help but wonder if that was all they were going to talk about. Then the teacher began to explain how soulmates worked. Apparently you wouldn't know who your soulmate was or anything about them until you met them. When you first saw each other or met the first thing your soulmate thought about you would appear on the inside of your left wrist and Roman unconsciously ran a finger over the blank brown skin there. The teacher showed the soulmark on their wrist as an example and Roman frowned at the words, starting to see the problem.

Roman didn't really think in words, not when it came to people. Well, he did, but not at first? Whenever he saw someone or met them or even thought about them he saw this flash of color in his mind's eye. He just thought of them AS that color. Sometimes there wasn't a reason for it, and it could change over time but the first thing was always a color. Like his Mom was a dark but elegant pink, his Ma was a periwinkle that edged a little more towards blue, and his brother was a bright green. His eyes grew wide as a thought hit him. Did that mean his thoughts wouldn't show up on his soulmate's wrist? That was horrible!

He felt a nudge and looked up at Remus, who was giving him a concerned look. Roman just shook his head and rolled his wrist. Remus nodded and looked back at the teacher at the front. He knew that Roman had said he'd tell him later and Roman was so grateful they were so close.

The rest of the assembly passed in a blur, and before Roman knew it, it was over and time to go home. As soon as they'd climbed into the back of their Ma's car Remus was looking at him and telling him to spill. It all came pouring out and he could see his Ma's white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel before she gave in and pulled them over to the side of the road. Sometime during his rant, Remus had grabbed Roman's hand, thought Roman didn't remember it. Ma turned around in her seat and touched his knee, the only part of him she could comfortably reach.

"Destiny picked this person for you Roman," Ma assured him, her smile softer than goose down. "It knows you will love them, just as they will love you. And love? Love always finds a way."

Those words stayed with Roman to this day. 


	2. Patton

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edit: I forgot to add the last paragraph because I'm an idiot

Roman scratched at the skin under the gold cuff bracelet on his wrist, pouting when Remus batted his hand away with his foot.

“If it’s irritating then just don’t wear it, idiot,” Remus chided him. Roman wasn’t sure Remus had the right to chid him, considering Roman was sitting normally on the couch while Remus was lounging back with one leg over the back. It wasn’t even their house, yet there he was.

“You know why I do,” Roman retorted, very maturely sticking his tongue out at his twin. “Asshole.”

“¡Idioma!” Ma called from the kitchen.

“Sorry, Ma!”

Remus rolled his eyes at him, something Roman didn’t take offense to anymore considering how often it happened. Roman knew his brother thought the bracelet was ridiculous, and maybe he was right. But he had a pretty good reason for wearing it. He didn’t want someone’s words to appear on his arm only for them to realize that there wasn’t anything on theirs. For all he knew, they could be his soulmate but he wouldn’t be theirs. There were cases of that happening, and there just wasn’t a way to know for sure. He didn’t want to get anyone’s hopes up just to break their heart...or his own.

Remus must have been able to tell where his thoughts went, as he nudged Roman’s leg again with his foot until Roman turned to look at him, finally resorting to throwing his legs into Roman’s lap. Roman looked away from the bracelet and to Remus. Rather than a sympathetic look or kind words like a twin SHOULD give him, Remus instead made some sort of face at him that Roman wasn’t sure was anatomically possible. So Roman shoved him off the couch.

“You two delinquents done playing around?” Remy said, drawn to the couch by Remus’s startled squawk. His cousin’s smirk told Roman he wasn’t actually upset but Remus went with it, so Roman did too.

“How DARE you?” Remus said in an overly pompous and offended accent. “We are preparing ourselves for the dangers of the real world” Betrayal can come from anyone at any moment!”

“Gurl, please,” Remy laughed. “You’re practically babies.”

“Excuse you, sir!” Roman pushed himself to his feet, his tone flawlessly matching Remus’s. “We are in the eighth grade, for your information!”

“Yeah!” Remus jumped in. “Besides, you’re barely older than us! It’s like what, two years? Preposterous!”

“Nice word.”

“Thanks, just learned it the other day.”

“Least I can drive now,” Remy cut back into what had quickly become the twins’ production. “Besides babes, it’s my birthday, you gotta treat me like an idol.”

“Bite me, Walmart Regina George,” Remus and Roman said in unison, punctuating it with a high five without even looking.

“I was gonna introduce to my friends from high school and my soulmate,” Remy sighed. He emphasized the word ‘soulmate’, knowing full well how it would make the twins’ ears perk up. “But if you don’t want, guess I can’t force you. Ciao!”

“Now now now, let’s not be too hasty,” Roman hurriedly said as Remy turned to leave.

“Yeah, you never even told us you met your soulmate!” Remus pouted. “I’m wounded, Remington.”

“Call me that again and you’ll have a wound,” Remy replied without missing a beat. “But alright girl, I’ll take you. Some of them even brought their siblings and friends and stuff, I think there’s probably someone your age. That’s what, two?”

Remy immediately ducked, predicting the, well, throw pillow that was tossed at his head. He didn’t even turn around, the bastard, and just lead them into the backyard where the people not gathered in the house were hanging out. It was just warm enough to have part of the party outdoors, but Remy’s family had left the house open for anyone who found it too cold. It was starting to get dark, so they’d turned on the fairy lights struck along the trellis overhead and wrapped around its columns, and they were even some on the fence around the yard. It actually looked pretty amazing, but Roman wasn’t going to admit that.

What he would admit was that Remy definitely had way more friends than Roman had thought. He knew his cousin was popular, but he thought it was in the way where everyone claimed to be your friend, but it was a shallow friendship if any. But all these people seemed to genuinely like Remy and Remy was just as fond back. Or Remy’s version of fond at least. It was a swirl of people that Roman couldn’t even begin to process, and the younger siblings and friends that they had brought certainly didn’t help.  
Finally was a boy about Remy's age who seemed to be waiting for them. He shot Remy this grin when they locked eyes and Remy softened in a way Roman had never seen before. Maybe that was why the color Roman saw was a soft, blush pink. He shot Remus a look only to see the same expression on his brother's face as well. When they reached him, Remy immediately offered his elbow and the boy took it like a couple in Victorian times.

"Heya! I'm Emile," The boy introduced himself. "And you two HAVE to be Roman and Remus, right? Remy talks about you two all the time."

And this HAD to be Remy's soulmate. He was definitely uh, softer than Roman had been expecting, that was for sure. Speaking of soft, another kid stepped up next to Emile. He looked more the twins' age, and everything about him just screamed 'SOFT!', from his glasses, to his curly blond hair which Roman really wanted to run his fingers through, his blue eyes that lit up when he saw the twins, and the prettiest shade of light blue Roman had ever seen that the boy caused.

"Well I'm Remus," Remus spoke up, before elbowing Roman in the side and clearing his throat obnoxiously. "And my twin here is Roman. Sorry that he doesn't deem you worthy of his attention."

"Oh shut up, you dick." Roman shoved him lightly. "Sorry, I just got distracted."

"It's alright, happens to the best of us." Emile waved it off before his eyes fell on the boy in the glasses. The other one. "Oh hey! Now I'm being rude. Roman, Remus, Remy, this is my friend Patton! Patton this is my soulmate Remy I told you about and his little cousins Roman and Remus. Though the way he talks about them, he thinks of them more like his little brothers!"

Remy groaned from next to him and let his forehead fall onto Emile's shoulder which couldn't have been comfortable with the sunglasses he insisted on wearing. Roman and Remus smirked and fistbumped, nonverbally agreeing to never let their cousin live that down. Roman heard someone giggling and turned to see Patton with his shoulders shaking and his hand over his mouth like he was trying to hide a grin. Ugh he was so freaking CUTE!

"I like him," Remus decided with a nod before looking to Roman for his decision. Roman was staring at Patton again who'd uncovered his mouth and had his grin on full display.

"Yeah...yeah me too."

"Roman Prince, you gay disaster."

"Shut UP, Rem!"

The party eventually wound to a close, and Patton had ended up spending the rest of it with Roman and Remus. Remus would not stop teasing Roman about it and Roman had hit him in the head for it multiple times. Thankfully he'd stopped, or at least paused, by the time the two were in their room getting ready for bed. Roman was already in his pajamas and was reaching to put his bracelet on his night stand when Remus came sprinting in from the bathroom. He tackled Roman and the two fell onto Roman's bed, quickly becoming a knot of nearly identical limbs. They flailed around a bit before Roman ended up laying back with Remus laying down on top of him. Roman groaned and Remus propped himself up on his elbows, putting them on either side of Roman and not in his ribs which Roman was grateful for.

"Oh come on, just pretend I'm a really heavy weighted blan-ROMAN HOLY SHIT!" Remus suddenly exclaimed, sitting up.

"Wha-" Roman managed to say and sit up against the headboard before Remus seized his wrist and yanked so it was between them.

"Rem what are you-" Roman started but Remus pressed a finger against his lips to quiet him and Roman glared at him. Remus seemed completely unperturbed.

"Just shut up and look," Remus ordered. Roman rolled his eyes and Remus pulled his hand away.

"I don't get it, it's my wr…" Roman trailed off as he realized what Remus was talking about. Holy fuck. He had words. HE HAD WORDS. "...Oh my God."

There, written in black across his veins, was his soulmark. It looked so innocent sitting there and Roman almost thought about the pain he knew it would bring him. But he shoved that to the side. Right now he was elated because HE'D JUST GOTTEN HIS FREAKING SOULMARK. He yanked his wrist out of Remus's grip and held it up to his face so he could read the words.

"What's it say?" Remus said, sounding as excited as Roman was.

"It says 'Oh my goodness, he looks like a Disney prince!'" Roman read and resisted the urge to squeal, knowing Remus would never let him forget it. "He thinks I look like a Disney Prince!"

"That is disgusting," Remus gagged and rolled off the bed.

"You're disgusting."

"Thank you!"

From there Patton just began to hang around the twins more and more often, basically whenever they could find the time. Their friendship only grew stronger when they all discovered that they'd be attending Mind Palace High School together in the fall. It wasn't always the three of them though, sometimes it would be just Roman and Patton hanging out. It was those times that drove Roman insane. Without Remus there to act as a buffer, Roman was the sole recipient of Patton's attention. It made his heart beat faster and his mood soared and the bracelet felt tight enough to stop the blood flow in his wrist. There were many times he considered just ripping it off and shoving the words in Patton's face in some desperate plea that they were his. But he didn't. He wasn't that selfish. Besides, Patton couldn't be his soulmate, he just couldn't. Roman didn't think he could bear being the one to break his best friend's heart.


	3. Logan

Roman was elated when he entered the auditorium, despite the number of rehearsals he'd already attended. It still almost didn't feel real. When Roman had auditioned for his school's performance of "The Prom" he’d expected to get ensemble if he got in at all, he certainly didn’t expect to get such a large role. He was playing Barry! It was, of course, Roman’s dream to play the lead one day but he didn’t mind too much considering that he was a freshman and the Prom didn’t really have a male lead.

Today everything just felt way more real. Today was their first day running through the musical with the whole crew! Roman still had to meet all of them other than a spare few. The lead sound, Camden Foote, had been present for the last few rehearsals so the actors could practice with the music and sound effects and one of the make-up artists, Talyn, had popped up a few times, but other than that Roman hadn’t really met the crew.

Yet another thing that excited him was that their directors, Joan (they refused to let their students call them anything else) and Mr. Sanders, had told everyone that this rehearsal was going to be a straight run-through with everything except make-up and costumes. Mics, music, lights, props, everything else was completely fair game. This did make him a little more nervous though. He really didn’t want to mess up during such a monumental rehearsal, not when everyone else would surely be anxious too.  
The number of people on the stage still made Roman pause, even though he knew more people would be there. Roman had almost been late thanks to Remus refusing to let him walk away, so it wasn’t even two minutes after he’d arrived that Joan and Mr. Sanders started rehearsal. Just as Roman had thought, they were going to go through the whole thing from the top and then work on any scenes that needed attention. Roman was a little miffed he hadn’t quite gotten the chance to speak to and meet all of the crew before rehearsal started, but it couldn’t be helped. He was the one who showed up so late after all.

The run-through was going surprisingly well, much better than Roman had been expecting. True, there were some things that definitely could have gone better and yes, some mistakes had been made, but that happened! There was a reason it was a rehearsal and not the performance. He couldn’t believe how clear and loud the mic strapped to him made him sound, even when he was muttering. He’d never felt more confident in his role, and he couldn’t even imagine how he’d feel once he got into costume for the first time. Until something went wrong. But it wasn’t his fault! At least, he didn’t think so.

About halfway into the first line of his part in “Tonight Belongs To You” something happened and Roman’s voice exponentially decreased in volume as his mic abruptly just stopped working. Joan thankfully cut him off before he could embarrass himself further, but they looked just as confused as he was. He didn’t remember turning his mic off and he didn’t exactly know how the mics worked, so he had no clue what the problem was. He saw Camden fiddling with something in the sound booth and, after Roman once again tested the microphone to no avail, seemed to come to some sort of conclusion.

“Hey Logan, can you go see what’s wrong with Roman’s mic?” Camden called out. That must have been one of the techs Roman hadn’t gotten to meet yet because he didn’t think he’d ever heard that name in his entire life.

He heard a frustrated sigh from the wings and turned around to face his apparently exasperated savior. That kind of irritated him, actually. It wasn’t his fault the microphone cut out! Yet this Logan guy seemed so annoyed like Roman had purposely broken the mic just to inconvenience him.

Even more irritating was the fact that Logan was hot as hell. Roman actually did a double-take and just watched the other boy cross the stage while he blinked stupidly.

He had cheekbones for days and his jawline was sharp enough to cut glass. His hair was carefully arranged and blacker than midnight, which really complimented his sharp features. He wore a pair of black glasses almost exactly the same as Patton's, but instead of softening or taking away from his features they somehow complimented them perfectly. By God, even his color was beautiful! It was navy blue but not the dull kind, the one that's somehow just as vibrant as other blues and radiates confidence and grace, sophistication and elegance. Roman even hesitated on calling him 'hot', it just didn't feel like the right word. The only alternative he could think of was 'beautiful'. How Logan did that even though he was wearing a tie and should look like a dork, Roman didn't know.

Once he reached Roman, Logan immediately leaned in close to inspect the microphone taped to Roman's face and Roman just about had a heart attack. This close he could see Logan’s only imperfection which was in his eyes. He had some form of heterochromia, one that left a segment of one eye a brilliant electric blue, completely different from the cool gray the rest of iris and the other eye were. It should be jarring, yet Roman couldn't find it in himself to criticize it. Logan reached forward and grabbed the wire and Roman had to suppress a shiver as Logan’s fingers brushed his neck.

Thankfully that didn’t last long as Logan presumably found the problem. He made a sound of realization and completely unstrapped the microphone. He took a step back and called to Camden over his shoulder.

“It seems that the inner wiring is frayed,” Logan said. “The wires were just barely managing to connect, but the jostling from his movement caused them to completely separate.”

Roman nodded along as if he had any idea what Logan was saying. He wasn’t an idiot, he had a vague idea, but he didn’t fully understand exactly what it was Logan meant.

“So it’s busted?” Camden called back.

“I believe so, yes.”

“You mind grabbing him a new one?”

“Very well.”

“Alright well, then let’s come back to this scene later, shall we?” Mr. Sanders cut in. “We’ll skip to a scene without Barry, and Logan you can take Roman to hook him up to a new mic.”

Logan nodded in agreement and Roman sighed but still followed Logan backstage anyway. Logan told him to wait and he walked off, reappearing quickly with a different microphone.

Roman swallowed as Logan began to attach the microphone to him, his thoughts akin to ‘PRETTY BOY IS REALLY CLOSE’. It only got worse when Logan had to lean in close. He could feel Logan’s breath on his cheek. All he had to do was turn his head slightly to the side and he’d be kissing him. Then Logan began to run the wire under Roman’s shirt which meant his HANDS were UNDER HIS SHIRT and it was REALLY NOT HELPING ROMAN’S SITUATION. That only lasted a second but then Logan was leaning next to his face again to tape the microphone and Roman began to desperately search for some sort of distraction before he panicked and did something REALLY stupid.

“So uh, Camden said your name is Logan?” Roman blurted out. Wow, good job Roman. He resisted the urge to smack his own forehead.

“Yes,” Logan agreed shortly. “It seems you do have basic observational skills.”

Roman made a noise of offense and Logan just rolled his eyes. “Well, you don’t have social ones apparently.”

Logan just shrugged and Roman had to take a deep breath.

"Well in case you were wondering," Roman went on. "I'm Roman, Roman King."

"Yes I'm aware," Logan said. "Camden said your name as well."

Thankfully, Logan finished prepping the mic before Roman did something dramatic. But for a second he didn't move. He just looked over right into Roman's eyes like there was something hidden deep inside them. Then he cleared his throat and took a large step back, leaving Roman frozen. What the heck was that?

"You should probably return to rehearsal," Logan broke the weirdly charged silence. "I expect they wish to go through the scenes you're in."

"Yeah," Roman breathed. He lingered for a moment longer then turned and made his way back on stage.

Logan was standing among the chairs in the auditorium when Joan announced they were going to work on one of the scenes Roman wasn't in, and Roman somehow found himself standing next to him. Why, he wasn't sure. He suspected it had something to do with how it felt talking to Logan. It was invigorating, challenging, and totally infuriating, but all in a good way. Roman didn't think that even he could put it into words.

They ended up talking again, and again, and again, to the point where it was just natural. Every time that neither of them were needed they could be found backstage or in seats, having a debate about one thing or another, and Roman freaking loved it. It was actually thrilling. It didn't take long before they began to spend time together outside of rehearsal, at Roman's house (or Logan's) or at lunch or what have you. Roman introduced Logan to Remus-which went a lot better than he was expecting as a lot of people can be caught off guard by his brother-and to Patton. Logan and Patton immediately hit it off, which relieved Roman that his best friend and his new friend got along. Logan even signed up for crew on all the school plays after that, even though he didn’t need the credit anymore. Everything was going great, and Roman couldn't be happier.

Except that in the car right after that first tech rehearsal when Roman met all of the crew, he found a second set of words on his wrist.

"How on EARTH did he manage that?"


	4. Virgil

Roman double-checked the room number on his new schedule with the number on the door in front of him. He still couldn’t believe he had to change all of his classes halfway through the year. He sort of understood why, but it was still a little drastic. One small explosion and all of sudden he and Remus weren’t allowed to have ANY classes together? Okay so it wasn’t exactly small and the entire room had been covered in red and green (thankfully safe) chemicals, but still! And of course Roman was the one who had to get his entire schedule rearranged while Remus got to keep his schedule. Although Roman supposed he should consider himself lucky that he didn’t get a worse punishment since the teacher technically couldn’t prove it was them.

There wasn’t anything he could do about it now, so he just sighed and entered his new English class. He even had a different teacher! Ms. Torres-Rosario seemed okay, he hadn’t heard anything bad about her, but he was sure that switching teachers in the middle of his sophomore year would take a ton of adjustment. He introduced himself to her and she pointed him to a seat near the middle of the classroom. At least he didn’t have to worry about finding a seat.

He sat down and immediately began talking to the person next to him as a couple more people filed into the room. He introduced himself as Terrence, but they didn’t get to talk for long before Ms. Torres-Rosario clapped to get the class’s attention. Roman turned back to the front of the class but he felt this tug or impulse or something to look behind him. Just as his resolve was crumbling, Ms. Torres-Rosario thankfully began to speak and Roman forced himself to ignore the urge.

"Okay, I'm gonna make this quick I promise," She started. "I've had something I wanted to start doing for a while now, and that is having a discussion in small groups after each chapter and book we read! Of course, we are going to want to get to know each other a little bit first, and since we just gained a new student, I figured there was no better time than the present."

"It's nothing crazy, just your name, pronouns, and an interesting fact about you." Ms. Torres-Rosario cleared her throat. "I'll start. My name is Valerie Torres-Rosario, I go by she/her, and I speak both English and Spanish. Let's start at the front, shall we?”

It went about how you would expect. People were taken off-guard as they tried to decide on something interesting about themselves, they were awkward, and they rushed through to get it over with as quickly as possible. There were a few people who were definitely more confident and Roman was proud to say that he was one of them. When it was his turn he stood up as smoothly as he could and gave his most princely and dramatic bow, which earned him quite a few giggles throughout the room. He threw on his signature charming smile as he launched into the spiel he’d prepared while waiting for his turn.

“Greetings, fellow classmates!” He nodded his head and looked around the room quickly. “My name is Roman King, I use he/him pronouns, and a fact I find quite unique and interesting about me is that I am thoroughly trained in the use of swords, both for stage fighting and real-world combat!”

His classmates applauded and he waited for their clapping to subside some. He felt that urge again, but this time it felt more like eyes on him. That wasn’t surprising considering Roman was currently the center of attention. So he just brushed it aside yet again and gave another bow before sliding into his seat. He half paid attention to his classmates’ introduction and simply marveled in the colors from each person but he found his focus drawn back in when the trail reached the back of the class and a certain boy. He didn’t even stand up, just stayed seated in his chair and rolled his eyes. Before he even opened his mouth, a dark and mysterious and beautiful purple exploded across Roman’s vision.

He had brown hair that fell over his eyes, though Roman suspected this was intentional as the boy never made any motion to fix it. He wore a black oversized hoodie that made him seem small in a way where you could tell he was a lot bigger than he seemed. Roman couldn’t see much of his face, but he was definitely wearing some sort of makeup. No one was that pale, even his cheeks didn’t have a rosy coloring. Also, was that eyeshadow under his eyes? It looked like he had two black eyes, except it was eyeshadow instead of bruising.

“Virgil Tempest,” Virgil deadpanned. “He/him and I’m an only child.”

Well. That was over fast. Roman was pretty sure he’d said all of that in one breath, not that it was a lot. It was very obvious that he did not care at all about any of this. The name gave it away, but now Roman was sure that this was the Virgil that Patton and Logan had made friends with. Roman had never met him because they didn't have any of the same classes, but he'd heard stories.

Roman narrowed his eyes at the other boy until he looked up through his hair and his eyes locked on to Roman's. Virgil's eyes are wide and he hurriedly looked away, suddenly shy. He probably hadn't expected to have anyone's attention on him anymore now that his turn was over but Roman couldn't help but notice the change from the indifferent or even angry persona he had been wearing. Ms. Torres-Rosario called out to the class now that the introductions were done and Roman begrudgingly turned back to face her. He tried to ignore it and stay focused on the lesson, but his thoughts kept straying back to the boy in the hoodie.

He'd gotten into the habit of checking his wrist after school every day and of course that day he'd found a new set of words: "Can he be any more extra?" Roman sighed. Of course, he got his new words on the day where he met a whole class full of new people every period. Just his luck.

It was a couple of weeks after Roman's first day in Ms. Torres-Rosario's class and he was beginning to think she had some sort of plot. Whenever she split them into small groups for discussions somehow Virgil and Roman ALWAYS ended up in the same group. The other classmates would change but Roman and Virgil were always together and that infuriated Roman to no end.

He couldn't decide if he liked or hated Virgil, either. They never seemed to agree on ANYTHING and he was so dark and gloomy and basically everything Roman wasn't. They argued and fought and insulted each other and Roman was starting to feel bad for the two other poor people who ended up in their group. But Roman couldn't help admiring his stubbornness and his passion, not to mention that as much as he tried to hide it, Virgil was willing to work as a team. He admitted when Roman made a good point, and there was the occasional time where they agreed on something and they'd glance at each other and quickly look away. The two of them had ended up assigned to collaborate on an essay and their essay got the highest grade out of the entire classes. They did make a good team.


	5. Heartbreak

Roman wasn't sure when their relationship changed, but one day he realized he considered Virgil a friend. Then, after a few minutes of reflecting on this sudden epiphany, he figured out that, even worse, he liked Virgil. He liked his weirdly soft curly hair and his new hoodie with the purple patches and the spark in his eyes whenever he got passionate and the smug smirk he got whenever he made a point Roman couldn't counter. He just liked Virgil.

That was a horrible revelation, not because of Virgil but because of who Virgil was to him. Roman now had a crush on all three of his best friends, but they all surely had soulmates, even if it was him. He couldn't bear to show them his soul marks either, because if he was their soulmate, they wouldn't have marks for him on their wrist. He could just imagine the tears in Patton's eyes, the confusion as Logan stared blankly, and Virgil looking for a while before hurriedly pulling his sleeve down and hurrying out of the room with some sort of muttered excuse. Roman couldn't do that to them. He just...he just couldn't.

It only got worse from there.

It wasn't even a week after Roman's earth-shattering personal confession that Patton was cornering Roman in the hallway. He asked him and Remus to meet Patton, Logan, and Virgil at their usual café. At first, Roman thought nothing of it and had absently asked why while pulling out his phone to let Remus know. He paused in the middle of typing when Patton said they had to tell him something. Okay, that was fine, that happened all the time. The twins' birthday was coming up, maybe they were going to surprise the two of them by telling them they'd planned something? Yeah, that was it, no need to assume the worst.

He should have assumed the worst.

When he and Remus entered the café the others were already in their usual booth in the corner where Logan and Roman's debates wouldn't disturb the other patrons and Roman took the chance to assess their expressions. He couldn't see Logan's face, only the back of his head, but Patton seemed incredibly excited and Virgil was nervous as always, but he was fighting a smile so Roman assumed it was the excited kind of nervous. That was a good sign, right?

"Don't suppose Patton-cake over there gave you any sort of hint at what's about to go down?" Remus asked him out of the corner of his mouth.

"No clue," Roman muttered back.

Roman slid into his spot next to Logan and Remus sat next to him as always. What didn't always happen was Logan turning to smile at him brightly. Patton started giggling uncontrollably which made Virgil cover his face with one hand, but Roman could see the corner of his mouth turned upward. Okay, WHAT was going on here? What had Logan smiling like that? No one immediately leaped to answer his mental questions so Roman decided to start the conversation.

"Okay you guys are acting fishier than the Kraken's crack," Roman started. "You guys have to tell us what's going on here."

"Well we have news," Patton managed to get out before he started giggling again. They weren't going to get anywhere at this rate. Logan apparently reached the same conclusion and sighed. He reached over the table towards Virgil, who was across from him, and...took his hand? They intertwined their fingers and Roman felt Remus's hand on the small of his back as some sort of gesture, but Roman was too confused to figure out what it was supposed to convey or why.

"We brought you both because we recently discovered something important," Logan explained. "And we decided that as our friends, you two deserved to know."

Roman just blinked at them, completely mystified. What was he missing here?

"Virgil, Patton, and I realized that the three of us are soulmates," Logan said.

He said it so simply, like those words hadn't been a punch to Roman's gut. They were soulmates. All three of them. He felt Remus's hand on his back increase in pressure, just enough to remind him it was there, and it took everything in Roman not to curl into his brother's arms, the one person he'd told about his crush on the three. His thoughts felt like they were on a loop, just repeating that single sentence over and over again. He distantly heard Logan still speaking and Remus saying something as well, but it felt like everything around him was happening underwater. He realized he should say something as everyone seemed to be looking at him and he tried to summon his usual dazzling smile.

"Congratulations you three," He managed to say, his voice sounding hollow even to him.

The three soulmates shared a glance. It was like they had an entire conversation without words and it made Roman feel like he was going to be sick. Patton sat up, thought Roman didn't remember seeing him lean his head on Virgil's shoulder. He reached over and covered Roman's hand with his own. It was such an affectionate, Patton-like gesture of reassurance, but Roman could still see Logan and Virgil's hands out of the corner of his eye so instead of comforting him it just made him want to cry even more than he already did.

"You okay, Ro-Ro?" Patton asked oh-so sweetly. Roman barely choked back a sob and made his smile appear more genuine.

"Of course, Papa Smurf!" Roman forced himself to laugh. "Just a little shocked is all!"

Patton frowned. Virgil, who was second only to Remus in calling Roman out on his bullshit, opened his mouth but thankfully Remus cut in.

"Actually, our Ma just texted," Remus lied smoothly. Roman knew it was a lie because he would have received a text as well but didn't say anything. "We have to head home, something about Remy showing up for a surprise visit?"

"I don't want to miss that, he never gets to visit cuz of his fancy college," Roman jumped on to the charade, praying his voice didn't wobble as much as it felt it did. "Sorry to leave though guys. Congratulations again."

Remus dragged him out of the café before anyone else could speak and it didn't surprise Roman when Remus pulled him into a nearby alleyway instead of heading home. Remus placed both hands on his shoulders and made Roman look at him. Roman could feel himself starting to shake and Remus's grip tightened.

"I'm pretty sure I already know the answer but I'm going to ask anyway," Remus said, his voice much gentler than it normally was. "Are you okay?"

Roman tried to assure him he was fine but the words got caught in his throat and came out as a strangled sound. Tears began to gather in his eyes again and he looked down at the ground. He bit his lip and shook his head as a sob finally ripped itself free. Within a split-second Remus was pulling Roman into his arms and Roman hid his face in the crook of his twin's neck, his hands reaching under Remus's arms to seize the back of his shirt in a death-grip. That first sob opened the dam and suddenly he just couldn't stop. Remus said nothing and just held him close. The boys he loved were meant for each other. Roman would have to watch them in a relationship and pretend his heart wasn't shattering more and more as time went on.

He'd been so afraid to break their hearts that they'd broken his.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to comment anything, comments are basically the only way I get validation


	6. Discovery

Ever since that day at the cafe, Roman could feel his heart in his throat. Every time Logan wrapped his arm around Virgil’s waist without even thinking about it, Virgil shyly took Patton’s hand, or Patton pressed kisses all over Logan’s face to get him to smile Roman could feel it, but as time passed it became less of a stabbing pain and more of a dull ache.

So he went on with his life as if nothing was happening. He wasn’t sure they always believed it; they kept staring at him with these soft looks he couldn’t quite interpret whenever they thought he couldn’t see them, but he brushed away what he assumed was their concern. He was getting through it! He’d move on. Eventually. He ignored how heavy and cold his bracelet felt on his wrist. He performed in The Prom flawlessly and Logan commended him for his performance. He continued to fondly argue with Virgil and he continued to entertain Patton with his dramatics. That was what he did after all. Pretend he was fine until he convinced even himself that he really was.

He wasn't so easy to convince this time.

This lasted for months until the end of sophomore year was quickly approaching. Rather than giving them a final, Roman and Virgil's absolute ANGEL of an English teacher had given them a project to do instead. It wasn't even a strict or complicated one, they just had to pick one of the books they'd read over the year and express it artistically, in any form they liked! Roman was absolutely gleeful at the opportunity to flex his creative muscles and Virgil, whom he'd unsurprisingly been paired with, had given the grinning boy an amused smirk so he assumed Virgil was fine with it too. After some (read: a lot) of discussion, they'd settled on a particularly emotional scene. Since Virgil was an incredibly talented artist and Roman didn't get to engage in visual art as much as he'd like they decided to recreate the scene as a diorama.

Roman had been at Virgil's house for the last few hours as they slowly but surely sculpted the necessary pieces for their scene. Of course, there was a lot of bantering and jokes thrown around, even a small wrestling match on the ground that had left them giggling and breathless, but they'd had to stop when they almost smushed all of their progress. Finally, the last piece was sculpted and they'd split from there. Roman was to work on the set and Virgil was going to paint all the figures they'd made.

He knew he should start working but as Virgil dumped all of his paints on to his desk (Roman was sitting on the bed) Roman couldn't help staring. Virgil's hair had been brushed out of his eyes for once so he could better see the work and Roman delighted in the opportunity to see his unobstructed face for once. He was beautiful like this, just completely at ease instead of drawn into himself or on edge and Roman was honored to be one of the few people to make him feel so relaxed. Even through the white foundation, Roman could see his cheeks still flushed bright red with laughter and his lips were curled in the remnants of a smile, like he didn't see a point to getting rid of it.  
He glanced back at Roman and raised a questioning eyebrow and Roman had never been more thankful for his darker skin as it hid the blush that quickly spread across his face. He cleared his throat and focused back on the task at hand, praying Virgil wouldn't think much of it. When Roman glanced back up Virgil was chewing his lip and the nervous tic made Roman squint at him suspiciously. What's that all about?

"Yo Nico diAnxious," Roman called and Virgil looked at him over his shoulder. "You all good over there? And stop chewing your lip, you'll make it bleed."

Virgil immediately stopped biting the tender skin and ran a hand through his hair. "Yeah, it's stupid."

"Remus King is my twin brother. Try me."

"I've gotta take my hoodie off to paint this because of how big it is. It'll smudge everything and get paint all over it."

"Oh yeah, I know you don't like taking it off unless you're alone." Roman tapped a finger against his chin as he tried to ponder a solution. Ah! It wouldn't be perfect but it was something. He reached down and grabbed his jacket off the floor before throwing it at Virgil, who fumbled a little but caught it. "Wear that. It's not as big especially since you're bigger than me but it's better than nothing. Right?"

"Uh, yeah," Virgil said, before setting the jacket down so he could take off his own hoodie.

While Roman was mentally preparing himself for seeing Virgil in his clothes, he sorta kinda glanced at Virgil's wrist without even thinking about it. His brain barely registered the words scrawled there but then he did a double-take. He couldn't read them from here, Virgil was all the way at the foot of the bed and it wasn't exactly written in large print, but there was one detail that stuck out.

"You have three sets of words," Roman blurted out before the part of his brain with common sense and basic social etiquette could catch up with his mouth. Well, he'd dug the hole, might as well lie in it. "You guys have a fourth soulmate?"

"Huh?" Virgil just blinked at him for a moment with Roman's white, paint-splattered jacket in his hands before looking at his wrist. "Oh yeah, we do. And it is all three of us, and based on the words we think it might be the same person. Just not sure who yet."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Roman asked. Wow. Roman could practically hear Remy calling him (albeit fondly) a nosy bitch.

"Honestly?" Virgil shrugged and put the jacket on.

"That'd be preferable, yeah."

"Because we noticed how soulmate talk makes you uncomfortable."

"Oh."

"I mean we don't know why, but you always wear that bracelet and always act weird when we do talk about soulmates. I mean, we all saw your face when we told you about the three of us, dude."

It was subject change time before Roman actually did get uncomfortable. More uncomfortable than he already was, at least.

"Can I see them?" Roman fought the urge to slam his forehead into the wall. That was not a change of subject! "Nevermind that's probably weird, sorry."

"No it's fine," Virgil assured him.

It didn't seem fine. Virgil was suddenly looking fidgety and weirded out, but he sat cross-legged in front of Roman in the bed anyway and held his arm out to the boy. Roman took it gently and, after a glance at Virgil to make sure he was actually okay with this and receiving a nod in return, carefully rolled up the sleeve of his jacket to reveal Virgil's wrist. It took him a second since the writing was upside from his perspective but he didn't want to say anything. He started with the words closest to Virgil's hand, since those would have been the first to show up, and worked his way down.

'Oh, poor little anxious baby'. That had to be Patton, there was no question.

'Well that was emotionally charged'. Logan, he could tell from the vocabulary and the way the person sounded as though they were mildly allergic to said emotions.  
The last one was different; instead of a sentence, it was just the word 'Purple'. As he turned it over in his mind his thumb began to absentmindedly stroke the skin the word was written on. If Roman had been paying attention he would have seen Virgil shiver before his unmarked hand rubbed the back of his neck.

"Yeah that's him," Virgil said, breaking the silence. "It's weird, isn't it? I remember being really confused since I wasn't even wearing purple that day, so I'm not sure where it came from-"

"It's your color," Roman interrupted his rambling. "Huh."

"My what now?"

"You know, your color."

"You are making less and less sense."

"I uh, I have this thing called synesthesia, you ever heard of it?" When Virgil shook his head no Roman continued. "It's this thing where you see colors, like you associate things with colors. Like whenever I listen to music I can see all these shapes and colors and I associate colors with sounds and stuff, even voices."

"Okay, but what does that have to do with me?"

"It's not just sounds though. It's people too. Everyone has a color that I get a flash of in my head whenever I think of them or talk to them or even see them."

"Wait, see them?"

"Yeah."

"So you're telling me that your first thought when you see someone is a color?"

"Yeah it is," Roman admitted. He dropped Virgil's wrist and drew in on himself a bit, his eyes trained on his hands in his lap. Here it was, the part where he judged him or pitied him, and Roman wasn't sure which one was worse. "And since it's not words it won't show up on my soulmates' wrists. So, yeah, that's why I cover my words. I don't wanna break someone's heart because he doesn't know if he's my soulmate."

"What color is Patton?"

"Uh, light blue?" That was not the way Roman expected this conversation to go.

"And Logan?"

"Navy blue, why?"

There was another silence between them as Virgil stared at him, and it was charged with something weird. Roman couldn't place the look on Virgil's face either, which he really didn't like. Then he shocked Roman even more, which seemed to be the trend of this conversation.

"Show me your wrist, Princey."

"What?" Roman exclaimed.

"You heard me," Virgil said, completely unfazed.

"I don't know if tha-"

"Do you trust me?"

"What?"

"Is that the only word you remember?" Virgil rolled his eyes. "I said, do you trust me?"

"For some reason, yes."

"Then show me your wrist."

Roman bit his lip and tapped his finger against the bracelet on his wrist. He'd never taken it off in front of someone other than his Ma, his Mom, and Remus. Not even Patton had seen his wrist, and he'd been Roman's best friend since 8th grade. But he did trust Virgil. Plus what was the worst that was going to happen? And Virgil had shown Roman his words, it was just unfair for Roman not to do the same. It just...it was weird. But eventually he nodded and slowly took off the bracelet. He stared at his wrist for a moment longer before thrusting it out at Virgil. He couldn't look at his face, but he couldn't look away either. There was yet another pause, and Roman began to feel awkward, even with Virgil's fingers loosely but securely wrapped around his wrist as he read Roman's words seemingly over and over again. 

"Well congratulations, Roman," Virgil sighed. The use of Roman's actual name instead of a nickname or especially Princey threw him enough, but Virgil's actual words confused him even more. He still hadn't let go of his arm. In fact, his hand had moved down Roman's arm so that his hand was now resting in Virgil's palm. Roman swallowed.

"What uh, what do you mean?" Roman replied eloquently.

"We're both morons this time," Virgil answered

"Huh?"

Virgil used the hand that wasn't holding Roman's to point to Roman's third set of words, the ones about him being extra.

"Those are my words," Virgil said, looking back down at the words. "That's the first thing I thought about you."

Virgil looked back up into Roman's wide eyes at Roman's sharp inhale with a soft little smile that Roman melted at. He was so glad he could see Virgil's eyes because right now they were filled with so much love and adoration that Roman didn't know what to say. But he always excelled at action where words failed him. He flipped his hand over so his palm was against Virgil's and slowly, giving Virgil plenty of time to pull away, intertwined their fingers and grinned right back when Virgil's thumb immediately began to lightly stroke his.

"The other words sound like Logan and Patton too," Virgil pointed out. Roman wasn't sure when their voices got so soft, but it felt right for this moment. "And with the color thing...the color you saw must have just shown up as the name of the color, because Logan and Patton have those colors as their last words too."

"Really?" Roman breathed, so so hopeful. Virgil nodded.

This didn't feel completely real, like it was too good to be true. It was all he could have ever hoped for and it had just fallen into his lap. Not only did his thoughts show up on his soulmates, which had been causing him so much pain and grief since second grade, but he'd already found them. The boys he'd slowly grown to love over years and years of holding himself back were his soulmates.

"I never thought I'd get to meet my soulmates," Roman whispered. He inhaled shakily and Virgil just squeezed his hand instead of prompting him, waiting for him to speak. "I thought that I...I was always going to...I was always going to be alone, or at least not with my soulmate. Then I started to get feelings for Patton and then for Logan and then for you, and it was fine, I could deal with it, you know? Then you told me you were soulmates and I...God I was devastated. Watching you three in a relationship felt like I was constantly being stabbed in the gut over and over again until I just kind of...accepted it.”

“We all liked you too, you know,” Virgil said. Roman huffed a little laugh. “I’m serious. We just didn’t say anything because we didn’t know if you were our soulmate and didn’t ask because we knew it made you uncomfortable. And if you weren’t we didn’t think you’d want to enter into a relationship with three soulmates.”

“Maybe next time we shouldn’t make assumptions,” Roman laughed quietly. Virgil’s hand gently came up to cup his face and he rested his forehead against Roman’s. Roman closed his eyes and just breathed, languishing in this moment, in the fact that this was actually happening.

“Let’s not let there be a next time,” Virgil countered and the two laughed again.

Neither of them pulled back, even though they still had a project to finish and they probably should keep talking about this. They knew that, but right then they just didn’t really care. They were too busy enjoying just being with each other and finally being able to act on everything they had been feeling for months. That is until Virgil suddenly gasped and sat up, making Roman nearly fall forward into his lap.

“Oh shit!” Virgil cursed.

“What, what is it?” Roman asked once he’d stabilized himself.

“I can’t believe we didn’t even think of that,” Virgil muttered before focusing back on Roman. “We have to call Logan and Patton and tell them. You know, our other two soulmates?”

“Oh shit,” Roman echoed. He smiled again for a second and his heart skipped a beat at the use of ‘our’ but he could be happy about that later.

“Yeah,” Virgil scoffed.

He grabbed his hoodie from behind him and began to rifle through the pockets until he emerged victorious with his phone in hand and tapped the screen a few times. Soon Roman could hear a faint ringing that increased exponentially in volume when Virgil tapped the screen and put the phone on speaker. They waited a moment before they heard a click and Patton’s voice began to filter through the speaker.

“Hey honeybun, what’s up?” Patton asked.

“Hey Pat, is Logan with you?” Virgil obviously wasn’t wasting any time.

"Yes, Virgil," Logan's voice answered through the phone. "You are on speaker phone so the both of us can hear you. Is everything alright?"

"You're on speaker too actually," Virgil said.

"Wait aren't you at Roman's house to work on that project?" Patton cut in. "Hi Ro-Ro!"

"Greetings to you as well, Patton," Roman returned the greeting, trying his hardest not to laugh. "To answer your question Calculator Watch, everything is okay, we just have something we need to say."

"Interesting," Logan hummed. "What is it?"

Roman opened his mouth to answer but Virgil did before he could say anything. "Can you guys come over to my house? Like now?"

"Aren't you working on your final project for English?" Logan said, and Roman could see the look on his face even if Logan wasn't actually in the room. "Perhaps you should complete that and then we can visit afterwards-"

"It's important Logan," Roman interrupted. "We promise. And before you ask Patton, I promise that we are alright. But you two need to come over here, okay?"

"Okay, we will," Patton said. He cleared his throat pointedly, Roman assumed to shut up Logan. "We'll see you kiddos in a few minutes!"

They heard the dial tone as Patton hung up the phone and Virgil busied himself with putting his phone back in the pocket of his hoodie. Roman fiddled with his fingers, not sure where to go from there. He definitely knew what he wanted to do; he wanted to kiss the living daylights out of Virgil. But they had only discovered they were soulmates like ten minutes ago, so that might be a little forward. He needed to do something though, so he gathered the partially completed set pieces on the bed and carefully placed each of them on the desk by their sculptures.

"I can hear you thinking all the way from over here," Virgil called out from the bed and Roman almost jumped.

"Sorry," Roman apologized on reflex.

"It's okay," Virgil said. He shifted so his back was resting against the wall, his legs stretched in front of him across the bed. "I'm not mad, just worried. You don't...do you regret this?" Virgil gestured between the two of them.

"God no, of course not." Roman shook his head. He climbed on to the bed and mirrored Virgil's pose next to him. The only difference being that his hand was laid on the small bit of empty space between them and his other hand was held in front of him while Roman stared at his words for the fifteenth time that afternoon. "It's more that I barely even allowed myself to want this. So now that I have it…"

"... it's like you don't know what to do with it." Virgil finished and Roman nodded his head. He felt Virgil take his hand again and he finally looked up at the other boy. "You're not the only one. With Patton and Logan we already kind of had an idea of what we were doing, but this, it's so sudden that I have no idea." Roman squeezed his hand in silent reassurance. "I just really don't want to fuck it up."

"Worst comes to worst we'll fuck it up together," Roman joked, getting a snort out of Virgil. "I'm just glad there is a 'this' personally."

"Let's just stick with that for now, then."

Roman scooted closer and Virgil laid his head on his shoulder, letting out a soft sigh. Roman let his head rest on Virgil's and closed his eyes, content to simply wait for Logan and Patton's imminent arrival. He just hoped that Virgil had been telling the truth when he said that the other two boys liked Roman just as much as he did them.


	7. Confession

Somewhere in the back of his mind Roman had been expecting something grand and ceremonious. This was a huge turning point in his life after all. But no, instead it started as ordinarily as it could. He and Virgil had fallen into a light doze as they waited, for neither of them wanted to break the silence and end the moment, but they didn’t want to move either. It wasn’t quite sleep, it hadn’t been long enough for that, so they were easily pulled back to awareness by the sound of a car in the driveway. Roman gently moved out from under a sleepily blinking Virgil and made sure he wasn’t going to fall before checking out the window. It was Patton’s car, which was what he’d expected so he wasn’t sure why he inhaled so sharply at the sight of it. He felt more than heard Virgil come up behind him; he stood a little closer than usual, but otherwise he didn’t do anything, and Roman couldn’t decide if he hated that or was grateful for it. Whatever, that didn't matter. Incredibly important life-changing conversations now, deep self-evaluating questions later.

“Come on,” Virgil said, his voice like a beacon leading Roman out of his thoughts. "We should probably go meet them."

"Yeah 'course," Roman agreed, but didn't look away from the window for a few seconds. He watched Logan and Patton walk up to Virgil's front door before finally forcing his feet to carry him down the stairs and to the front room.

Like it was a cue, a knock on the door rang out the second Roman stepped off the bottom stair. He took a half step toward it and realized that since it was Virgil's house, he should probably answer it. He instead sat on the nearby couch, just staring at the other couch across from him where he knew Logan and Patton were going to be sitting. Sure enough, not a minute later there were words exchanged at the door and Logan and Patton were sitting on the couch, their faces models of poorly hidden concern. Virgil sat next to him which made sense considering they were both making the announcement, but he did lean against Roman's shoulder just slightly, as a steady presence. If Logan and Patton noticed Virgil wearing Roman's jacket they didn't say anything.

"You two kiddos alright?" Patton said, before Roman could fully gather his thoughts.

"Yes, I don't believe I've seen Roman this serious since his coming out," Logan pointed out.

"Well it's a similar subject matter," Roman admitted with a small chuckle. The two boys just looked confused and Roman took a deep breath. "Maybe it's easier if I start at the beginning."

"I have something called synesthesia. Basically I see sounds and associate things with colors, including people. And, well, for the longest time I thought that since my first thought when I saw someone was a color, not a sentence, it wouldn't show up on someone's wrist, and I didn't want someone to think it was unreciprocated when there was no way of knowing for sure. I didn't...I didn't want to break their hearts."

"Oh Roman." Patton reached out to touch Roman's hands, which were wringing in his lap. "I had no idea. Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't want to admit it honestly," Roman shrugged. "I didn't want you, any of you, to judge or pity me."

"So that's why you wear that bracelet," Logan realized. "You didn't want someone to see their words on your wrist and realize yours wasn't on theirs."

"Exactly," Roman nodded.

"But…" Virgil started and looked to Roman for confirmation he could continue. Roman gave him a self-deprecating smile and another nod. Honestly he wasn't sure he would've been able to finish it himself, so Virgil was more than welcome to. "He found out recently that his thoughts would appear on his soulmates' wrists."

"Oh soulmates, plural?" Patton sing-songed. "So you already met them? Who are they? And did you think about them? What did they think about you?"

"Well, Pat," Roman gave a breathy laugh. "I found out that it would show up as the name of the color I thought, not the second thing I thought about them. Do you see where I'm going with this?"

There was a very pregnant pause as Roman and Virgil waited for one of them to get it.

"Wait a second." Logan clapped his hands like he always did when a switch flipped in his brain and he made a deduction. "The three of us each have a color on our wrists."

"There ya go, Lo," Virgil smiled that dazzling relaxed smile again, and Roman found himself mirroring it albeit a lot more nervously.

"Wait you're our fourth soulmate?!" Patton gasped, his hands flying to his mouth. Before Roman could even confirm Patton had thrown his arms open and was absolutely beaming. "YOU'RE OUR FOURTH SOULMATE!"

The next thing Roman knew he was on the ground with an armful of soulmate on top of him as Patton kissed his cheeks, eyelids, forehead, temple, and the corner of his mouth over and over again while Virgil cackled in the background. Roman wanted to be mad at the emo, even jokingly, but he was giggling too.

"Patton, darling, let him breathe," Logan reminded Patton eventually.

It took another moment before he complied, but eventually Roman could see something other than blonde curls. Logan was standing over him and held out a hand to pull him to his feet. Roman took it and was pleasantly surprised at how easily Logan hoisted him up. More surprising was how Logan didn’t let go of his hand. Roman wasn’t complaining, though.

“Sorry Roman,” Patton said shyly. “It’s just, well I’m sure Virgil told you but gosh we’ve all liked you for so long. I probably should have figured it out since I’ve liked you since Remy’s party.”

“Something about me looking like a Disney prince, right?” Roman teased.

“Well the white suit made you look very handsome.” Patton stuck his tongue out. Roman laughed and saw Virgil fondly shake his head but a squeeze on his hand pulled Roman’s attention back to Logan.

“Roman,” Logan began. But he paused. Roman had never seen Logan unsure of his words before and raised an eyebrow in curiosity. “As Patton and Virgil said, we’ve all been hoping and maybe even waiting for this for a long time. Now that we finally have it, have you, I was wondering if I could kiss you?”

Roman inhaled so sharpy he could hear it, which was something considering how loudly his blood was pumping in his ears. His brain could barely process it. Thankfully the decision part of his brain processes it at least, and he heard a “God, yes” slip out of his mouth. He didn’t have time to be embarrassed about it because now Logan’s lips were on his. His eyes fluttered closed and he honest to god hummed happily, deciding the “God, yes” was more than appropriate. Logan’s hand that wasn’t holding his ended up his hips while Roman’s came up to rest on Logan’s upper arm and it was just perfect. Roman couldn’t help smiling to the point where he had to pull away. At first Logan looked worried but Roman just leaned his forehead against Logan's and caught a small smile on Logan's lips as well.

"Hey why does he get the first kiss?" Virgil scoffed, his usual smirk in place when Roman tore himself away from studying Logan's eyes for the bazillionth time. "I'm the one that found him, I should get-MMF!"

He was cut off by Roman employing a strategy he'd been considering for months: Kissing Virgil to shut him up. Virgil jolted back at first and Roman internally cursed himself. What was he THINKING doing that to Virgil of all people so abruptly and suddenly he probably freaked him out-

Nevermind, Virgil was kissing him now so it was all good. Roman had started to pull away but Virgil, who was still sat on the couch, had fisted his hands in Roman's t-shirt and pulled him back down. Roman had to brace himself on the back of the couch with one arm on either side of Virgil to keep from flattening the boy but as soon as he got his bearings one hand was in Virgil's hair and he could've sworn Virgil keened. He heard a little huff from behind and immediately recognized the sound as Patton's frustrated noise. Evidently Virgil did too as they pulled away and immediately started laughing.

"Okay I've been waiting four years now so my turn!"

Yet again Patton pulled him in before Roman could even blink, grabbing his arm and spinning him around. Then his lips were on Roman's and Roman was just glad his lips got with the program before his brain did, same with his hands. One hand was snaked around Patton's waist and the other pressed to the small of Patton's back. As Roman was prone to do, he got an idea. This time he got to surprise Patton as he suddenly dipped his soulmate. Patton squealed in surprise and quickly wrapped his arms around Roman's shoulders, as if Roman would ever let him fall. Of course then he was making his adorable signature Patton Giggle and Roman couldn't help joining in for a moment. But he also wanted to kiss Patton again, so he did. Because he could now.

He couldn't hold the position long however and stood them back up, a still giggling Patton in his arms, and couldn't help thinking how perfect this was. Virgil took one of his hands and Logan's hand was on Patton's shoulder and Roman was happy. Not content or fine or okay, he was well and truly happy. He didn't remember putting it back on but his attention was drawn to the golden bracelet on his wrist that he'd worn like armor since the second grade. He took his hand from Virgil and without a thought dug his fingers under it and pulled it off for the last time. Virgil came over and squeezed Roman's hand while Patton kissed his cheek and Logan's other hand took Roman's, thumb stroking over the words and Roman finally had the bravery to let it go. The bracelet fell to the floor with a dull clunk and Roman found he didn't care.

He didn't need it anymore.


End file.
